Linux

Well I guess I’m a Linux user now.

One of us! Welcome!

Gnome apparently doesn’t let you create desktop shortcuts unless you resort to command line.

GNOME is indeed very opinionated. Consider taking a look at any of the "Desktop Icons"-extensions on extensions.gnome.org. This enables one to engage with desktop shortcuts without opening a terminal.

Linux is NOT dumbed down enough for the average user yet.

Depends. I can't imagine how something like Endless OS could cause troubles to someone that only requires simple functionality (like e.g. their favorite web browser working etc) from their OS.

As a final note some Linux users push harder than crack dealers I’ve met.

Yes. We can be very enthusiastic at times 😅.

I do think that engaging with different desktop environments at this stage of your Linux journey might be very beneficial in the long run, but I can totally understand it if you'd like to settle down for (at least) a moment.

Try using the extension Desktop icons NG. (I think)

Gnome is not supposed to have desktop icons actually.

What distribution are you using? In my experience, ease-of-use varies wildly between software and hardware configurations.

There are systems that are built for Linux support, and some system builders (like System 76 and Pop!_OS) bundle their own distros with their machines, which makes for a better experience overall.

There's also ChromeOS, which is technically Linux (in the same way that Android is), which is typically regarded as one of the most reliable and easy to use, and recently is available to install on nearly any machine.

That said, Linux is very much different from Windows. With Windows, the GUI is baked into the system and you can do almost anything without touching the terminal. In Linux, being familiar with (or at least not afraid of) the command line is a requirement to really getting things done.

One of the biggest issues with Linux is that installing applications isn't non-destructive to the system unless you're using Flatpak or Nix or something. Applications being installed, upgraded, removed, etc. and not putting things back the way that they were or that other applications expect them to be is probably the biggest source of frustration.

Once we have a reliable community distribution, which uses only containerized/sandboxes apps (a la ChromeOS), I think adoption for the average user will be a lot easier. Until then, just avoid using apt whenever possible.

I wouldn't recommend Linux to my dad or any of my friends.

Actually, you'd be surprised how well Linux works* for non-technical folks who don't have any specific computing requirements (as in, wanting to run Photoshop or use nVidia gfx etc). I've installed Linux (Xubuntu and Zorin) on several of my elderly relatives computers, including on my own parent's PCs. Some of them have used Windows all their lives, some of them don't have much experience with computers (my dad had ZERO experience), and none of them had any prior Linux experience at all.

Pretty much most of them had the same common requirement - Facebook, emails, banking, browse random sites, open and edit random documents, occasionally print stuff, occasionally scan stuff. You know, basic computing tasks. And guess what, Linux worked perfectly for them. I only had to explain them the basics - like how to save/copy files, how to print/scan etc, and that's it.

I set up a scheduled task (cronjob) to do automatic updates, and they never had any issues. Needless to say, none of them are gamers (unless you count Mahjong) and none of them had nVidia cards. They never once had to manually run a command in the terminal. And all of them were happy that their "new system" runs so much better than their "previous one" (some of them don't even know they're running Linux).

I can count on one hand the number of support calls I received in the last 5 years.

So yeah, contrary to popular belief, Linux is actually a good choice for non-technical folks - it's the technical folks, who have their own requirements, custom workflows and ingrained habits over decades of using Windows, that have issues.

* - This is of course assuming you're using a sensible, newbie friendly distro, like Xubuntu or Zorin.

If you want to use desktop shortcuts, you're better off using KDE Plasma, Cinnamon, Budgie, or XFCE as your desktop environment. Good thing in Linux is that you can install several DEs alongside each other.